PC IN A BOX

Version 4.5.2 of the commercial VMware PC emulator was released just recently. For many users, VMware is the preeminent virtual PC. In this article, we’ll tell you what’s new in VMWare Workstation 4.5.2, and we’ll show you how you can get started with running Linux in VMWare.

Despite the success of Wine-based compatibility applications, you may still have the need to emulate a complete PC. For example, you might want to try out a Windows program that doesn’t work in Wine, set up a number of test machines without being restricted by partition tables, or just test your new website using a variety of operating systems and browsers. If so, a virtual machine is the way to go. Fake and Fool In contrast to API emulators like Wine, VMware workstation emulates a complete computer as a software program. The so-called guest operating system runs within the VMware simulation, which can’t distinguish this environment from a real PC. VMware [1], the enterprise behind the product with the same name (which became a subsidiary of EMC corporation in 2004), has Linux and Windows variants of the emulator. The boxed version costs US$ 199 in the VMware store [2]; the download variant costs just 10 dollars less [3].

Improved resource balancing, central administration, and service consolidation – you can only win with virtualization. Linux Magazine visits a communal data center for a practical look at virtualization in the workplace.

Dynamic resource allocation and migration of virtual machines between hosts mean that VMware environments pose new monitoring challenges. A new version of the free OpenNMS network management tool now includes an option for monitoring VMware-based infrastructures.